Fear And Self-Loathing In Mumbai

Asia's oldest stock exchange has fallen on hard times. Its crosstown rival is getting a lot more play these days and has stolen a march on all the fancy new products a stock exchange can offer. Rather than go quietly into the night, the Bombay Stock Exchange and its hotshot new CEO are going to do something. Something drastic. Something like listing on said aforementioned crosstown rival?

Well, the BSE plans to do just that. The London Stock Exchange may be listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Deutsche Börse on its own Frankfurt exchange, but the BSE plans to list on the National Stock Exchange, India's answer to the Nasdaq and the BSE's bête noir. And why not? The NSE sees three times the turnover of the BSE, and the latter is trying to make some money, no? New CEO Madhu Kannan cut his teeth at the New York Stock Exchange, which is listed on two bourses. And so BSE will deign to list itself on itself, just like the NYSE did twice (it's listed both in New York and on Euronext). Any takers?

Involving weightless trading and his Buzz Lightyear cape. In an interview in the latest edition of the London-based publication Square Mile Magazine, former Goldman Sachs trader Anton Kreil has announced that he will be attempting to become the first person in history to make a financial markets transaction in Space, when he hops aboard the XCOR Lynx MKII shuttle with Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) in 2014. Technically, the World Records that Kreil and SXC will be attempting are "First Financial Transaction in Space" and "Highest Recorded Financial Transaction." However, given that Kreil is a City-based trader, the "Financial Transactions" he will be making will be a Currency Trade and a Stock / Share Trade. In the Square Mile interview, Kreil outlined that since he is British and is flying in a US-built shuttle, trading the currency pair of Sterling US Dollar (GBP/USD), commonly known in the financial markets as "Cable", made perfect sense. Kreil admitted: "I certainly can't commit to trading the Euro. With the way things are looking at the moment, it may not even be around by the time we go." The flight will be broadcast live on the internet, so the sponsors of the trades will get instant worldwide exposure. There will be cameras inside the aircraft and Kreil will be floating weightless in the cockpit, looking down at Earth and buying the sponsor's stock. "From the companies' perspective, the message of being a true global pioneer is a great message. It's an amazing situation to be involved in," stated Kreil. The flight itself will take off from either Mohave in California or the Caribbean island of Curacao. It will take Anton four minutes to get to Space and he will be travelling at three times the speed of sound up to 103km (330,000 feet). 100km is the internationally-accepted border to Space and is known as The Karman Line. As long as Kreil executes the trade at 100km above sea level, the sponsor will hold the record. Kreil will then fly back to Earth and the entire trip will be around one hour. SXC and Anton Kreil - "The First Trade in Space" [Press Release] Anton Kreil [Twitter]